Joey Ingram has been reinventing the role of executive chef at The Convent Hunter Valley and restaurant Circa 1876. He’s the culinary creative director, overseeing food and beverage for the entire property, and building Circa 1876 into an unmissable choice for destination dining.
Ingram comes to Circa 1876 from four years as head chef up the road at Margan Restaurant, where he retained the chefs’ hat every year. He has an incredible fine-dining background in restaurants with a host of chef’s hats and Michelin stars.
Raised in Sydney, Ingram has worked in some of Sydney’s top kitchens including Restaurant Balzac with Matthew Kemp, Tetsuya’s with Tetsuya Wakuda and Martin Benn, Pier Restaurant with Grant King and Greg Doyle, and Fujisaki at Barangaroo with Chui Lee Luk.
The Convent Hunter Valley hosts 19 guest rooms, a lounge, the 100-seat Circa 1876 restaurant and two private dining rooms, plus facilities for conferences and weddings. It’s set amongst beautiful gardens and vineyards in classic Australian wine country.
Now at home with his family in the Hunter Valley, Ingram is finding new avenues for the European meets Hampton’s luxury and strong personality of The Convent’s exquisite property and restaurant.
Celebrate the fresh harvest of springtime
Nothing says ‘fresh and vibrant’ like a chilled bottle of prosecco, so to welcome the arrival of springtime and new growth, on Wednesday 18 September, Circa 1876 is having a very special wine dinner hosted by Paolo Favero from the magnificent Astoria winery in the picturesque Prosecco Hills about 50km north of Venice.
Begin with snacks and cocktails at dusk in the market garden before venturing inside for a four-course journey through Astoria’s Val de Brun Estate in Refrontolo, in the heart of the DOCG zone Conegliano-Valdobbiadene, whose unique landscape was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2019.
The special menu created by Ingram ranges over five courses from the lightness of crostini with pickled mussel and pesto bianchi, to a rustic experience of spring lamb rump with new season garlic, anchovy, parsley and cavolo nero.
Each course offers matching wines, including Astoria’s own grappa, sourced from their own vineyards producing wines from local and international varieties. With the Hunter alive with the buzz of spring, think of stracciatella with broad beans, green almonds, preserved lemon, mint and myrtle with a glass of 2021 Astoria Butterfly Prosecco Treviso DOC Extra Dry. Bookings are essential, seats are $189 per person.
Ingram has much respect for the region's winemakers including Andrew Margan, PJ Charteris, Liz Silkman, Andrew Thomas, Mike De Iuliis, Kate Sturgess and Iain Riggs. Ingram says,
"These people really are making some of the most intuitive and expressive wines in the country"
Fall in love with the building, team and history
The Convent Hunter Valley offers grand comfort with timeless, heritage charm and a touch of the Hamptons. It has a unique origin story. Built in 1909 as a catholic convent in Coonamble, far to the west of Tamworth in central NSW, in 1990 the historic building was deconstructed and rebuilt 600km away in Pokolbin in the heart of Hunter Valley Wine Country.
Circa 1876 is a dining room attached to the ironbark cottage built on the property in 1876. “I love the building, the team and the history,” says Ingram. “So many amazing people have passed through these halls.”
Among the trees and vines is a huge kitchen garden, and a run for the flock of magnificent-looking chooks. Every course of Ingram’s succinct but diverse menu offers an excellent balance of meat, seafood and vegetarian dishes. The five starters, five mains, four desserts, four sides and a cheese selection feature a diverse and thoughtful array of ingredients, and interesting use of heirloom and kitchen garden ingredients.
Consider the main of confit leg of duck, beetroot, spätzle, red cabbage and mizuna, or the starter of spatchcock with cranberry, foie gras, macadamia, cauliflower and spigarello. The spatchcock rests against a pillow of spigarello leaves carefully placed alongside a contrasting row of red nuggets of cranberries, creamy white macadamia, and tiny pieces of deep purple cauli.
The presentation on show at Circa 1876 is masterful, practical and not at all fussy. The care they take with plating adds to the appreciation of the ingredients, rather than rendering them a simple colour or texture to play with. The dishes speak of impeccable attention to detail and an expert, light touch with classic French recipes and techniques, alongside a certain rustic charm.
Circa 1876 offers an extra element of character and local ingredients, like the wagyu rump cap with parsley, horseradish and oyster mushrooms from artisan producer Mother Fungus, on the mid-north coast near Taree. The bright red flesh of the wagyu is presented on a thick bed of parsley puree and jus, the perfect steak crowned with a halo cluster of mushrooms.
For dessert, picture a millefeuille of poached pear, lovingly encased by circular layers of rhubarb, vanilla and walnut, just aching for a fork or spoon to crack apart the careful construction.
Life-long passion for cuisine without compromise
The Convent’s executive chef Joey Ingram is the kind of consummate professional who can help maintain incredibly high standards while developing new dishes and reacting to what the seasons deliver.
Ingram’s passion for his craft was born early in life. He says that growing up in Sydney, he was exposed to a wide range of cultures. “I always loved being able to hop on a train or bus to go to a suburb with a particular cuisine to enjoy.”
During high school he worked at a local café on the weekends and took to the energy and camaraderie with the other cooks. “I loved the smells and the sounds,” says Ingram. “The feeling of service was exhilarating, scary and rewarding, and to this day, nothing has changed about that.”
“To this day, I there are cookbooks I keep referring to, because they had such a profound influence on me,” says Ingram, “Nose to Tail, by Fergus Henderson, Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry, and White Heat from Marco Pierre White.”
At 16 years, Ingram signed up to a chef’s apprenticeship, but after a few years felt the magnetic draw to Europe. While travelling through Italy and France in the summer of 2004 and cementing his love of Mediterranean cuisine, Ingram worked for six months as commis chef at Le Dome, a renowned Michelin-starred seafood restaurant in Paris.
Ingram says, “I also spent a good amount of time backpacking through China and India, both of which opened my eyes to the use of spice in layers.”
At the end of two months in China in 2007, Ingram undertook one-week unpaid internships in Hong Kong at the Michelin-starred Spoon by Alain Ducasse and the three-starred L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon. “I experienced working in a Michelin environment of the highest level,” he says, “and I learned techniques and methods that I’ve never stopped using.
Despite these incredible experiences, it was back in Sydney that Ingram found his direction, joining the kitchen at the two chef hatted Restaurant Balzac as junior sous, where his understanding of French cuisine expanded rapidly under chef Matthew Kemp. Ingram says, “Matt taught me how to seek excellence in cooking, how to write a menu, how to lead a team, how to be a serious chef.”
Discovering life’s greatest gifts
Ingram’s maturity and abilities as a chef have extend out of the kitchen into developing restaurant concepts and then building and launching the venue itself, as well as supporting up-and-coming talent in the hospitality industry.
Back in 2011, Ingram and friend and mentor, Jeremy Bentley, opened The Devonshire in Surry Hills. Together, they gutted the existing space, designed and installed the kitchen, purchased equipment, painted the dining room, tested recipes and planned the menu, sourced suppliers, and recruited and trained staff. Ingram found it incredibly satisfying and along the way, they earned a chef’s hat.
A few years later, Ingram and partners took over the management of The Dining Room at The Royal Exchange, a distinguished institution, in Sydney’s financial district, in much need of some love. In just nine days, they reorganised the place and gave it a facelift, and then opened with a bang.
These days, Ingram is giving back on the support and mentoring he received as a developing chef, as well as gardening at home and cooking with his children, although he says it’s a slower and messier process to what he’s used to at work.
He’s also currently the deputy chairman of the not-for-profit Hunter Culinary Association, which provides mentoring to young hospitality professionals and a series of scholarship programs. Ingram says, “I think that the greatest gift that life has to offer is the opportunity to work hard at work worth doing.”
The Convent Hunter Valley and Circa 1876 give you every reason to visit and explore the charms and pleasures of the Hunter Valley, whether you want to lounge in the shade after one of the best meals you can remember or explore the exceptional local wineries and artisan food producers. The Convent Hunter Valley is a two-hour drive from Sydney or one hour from Newcastle; Sydney Airport is 180km away, Newcastle Airport is 70km.
